The primary objective is to understand protein-nucleic interactions. The proposed research concerns interactions between DNA and the proteins involved in the replication and morphogenesis of filamentous bacterial viruses, and those involved in structure and function in procaryotic and eucaryotic chromosomes. To be sought is knowledge of the structures of multisubunit-protein nucleic acid complexes and knowledge of the kinetics and thermodynamics of the formation of such complexes. The methods will be analytical centrifugation, transient electric birefringence, light scattering, circular dichroism, and electron microscopy. The results are to be interpreted in terms of virus structure and assembly, and, in the case of DNA-histone interactions, in terms of chromatin structure and function. A secondary objective is to understand the behavior of macromolecules in solution. The size, shape, and solution dynamics of proteins, nucleic acids, and nucleoproteins will be studied by various techniques.